Effect of integrated medicines management on quality of discharge medication information-a secondary endpoint in a randomized controlled trial.

Background: High-quality discharge information is important to promote patient safety when patients are transferred from hospital to primary care. Patients with multiple long-term conditions are especially vulnerable to insufficient transfer of medication information, as they use many medications and have complex interactions with the healthcare services. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of integrated medicines management provided to hospitalized multimorbid patients on the quality of the discharge medication information.

Development and external validation of a prognostic model for time to readmission or death in multimorbid patients.

Objective: To develop and externally validate a prognostic model built on important factors predisposing multimorbid patients to all-cause readmission and/or death. In addition to identify patients who may benefit most from a comprehensive clinical pharmacist intervention.

Methods: A multivariable prognostic model was developed based on data from a randomised controlled trial investigating the effect of pharmacist-led medicines management on readmission rate in multimorbid, hospitalised patients.

Effect of integrated medicines management on the quality of drug treatment in hospitalised multimorbid patients - a secondary endpoint analysis of a randomised controlled trial.

Objectives: To investigate the effect of integrated medicines management provided to hospitalised multimorbid patients on the quality of drug treatment at discharge measured as the mean number of potential prescribing omissions and potentially inappropriate medicines.

Methods: Multimorbid patients ≥18 years, using a minimum of four regular drugs from a minimum of two therapeutic drug classes, were recruited from the Internal Medicine ward, Oslo University Hospital, Norway, from August 2014 to March 2016 and randomly assigned, 1:1, to the intervention or control group. Intervention patients received integrated medicines management throughout the hospital stay.

On the Ethics of Withholding and Withdrawing Unwarranted Diagnoses.

The number of diagnoses and the number of persons having diagnoses have increased substantially, and studies indicate that diagnoses are given or upheld even if they are unwarranted, that is, that they do not satisfy professionally accepted diagnostic criteria. In this article, the authors investigate the ethics of withholding and withdrawing unwarranted diagnoses. First, they investigate ethical aspects that make it difficult to withhold and to withdraw such diagnoses.

Effect of pharmacist-led inhaler technique assessment service on readmissions in hospitalized COPD patients: a randomized, controlled pilot study.

Objective: To investigate the effect of pharmacist-led inhaler technique assessment service on readmissions and CAT-score in hospitalized COPD patients. Furthermore, to provide an effect estimate for sample size calculations for future studies and to gain experience on the feasibility of such studies.

Methods: A randomized controlled pilot study.

Dediagnosing - a novel framework for making people less ill.

Diagnosing constitutes a substantial part of healthcare work and triggers a wide range of actions including the prescription of medicines. Dediagnosing is proposed as a novel framework for removing diagnoses that do not contribute to the reduction of persons' suffering and should be introduced to make people less ill. Dediagnosing comes together with other efforts to reduce overuse, such as deimplementation, deprescribing, decommissioning, and disinvestment.

Effect of medicines management versus standard care on readmissions in multimorbid patients: a randomised controlled trial.

Objective: To investigate the effect of pharmacist-led medicines management in multimorbid, hospitalised patients on long-term hospital readmissions and survival.

Design: Parallel-group, randomised controlled trial.

Setting: Recruitment from an internal medicine hospital ward in Oslo, Norway.

Prevalence and risk factors of drug-related hospitalizations in multimorbid patients admitted to an internal medicine ward.

Background: Knowledge of risk factors for drug-related hospitalizations (DRHs) is limited.

Aim: To examine the prevalence of DRHs and the relationships between DRHs and various variables in multimorbid patients admitted to an internal medicine ward.

Methods: Multimorbid patients ≥ 18 years, using minimum of four regular drugs from minimum two therapeutic classes, were included from the Internal Medicine ward, Oslo University Hospital, Norway, from August 2014 to March 2016.

Effect of teaching and checklist implementation on accuracy of medication history recording at hospital admission.

Background: Medication discrepancies at hospital admission is an extensive problem and knowledge is limited regarding improvement strategies.

Objective: To investigate the effect of teaching and checklist implementation on accuracy of medication history recording during hospitalization.

Method: Patients admitted to an internal medicine ward were prospectively included in two consecutive periods.

Severity and management of drug-drug interactions in acute geriatric patients.

Background: Previous studies have investigated the prevalence of drug-drug interactions (DDIs) among the elderly in different care settings, but data describing the frequency and management of DDIs among acute geriatric patients appear to be absent.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the severity and interdisciplinary management of DDIs in patients admitted to an acute geriatric ward.

Methods: The study was conducted at Oslo University Hospital, Norway, over a period of 19 weeks in 2010/11.